In recent years, a number of new service features have been provided by an enhanced telephone network, sometimes referred to as an Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN). In an AIN type system, local and/or toll offices of the public telephone network detect one of a number of call processing events identified as AIN "triggers". For ordinary telephone service calls, there would be no event to trigger AIN processing, and the local and toll office switches would function normally and process such calls without referring to the central database for instructions. An office which detects a trigger will suspend call processing, compile a call data message and forward that message via a common channel interoffice signalling (CCIS) link to an Integrated Service Control Point (ISCP) which includes a Multi-Services Application Platform (MSAP) database.
The ISCP is essentially a central control for the network. If needed, the ISCP can instruct the central office to obtain and forward additional information. Once sufficient information about the call has reached the ISCP, the ISCP accesses its stored data tables in the MSAP database to translate the received message data into a call control message and returns the call control message to the office of the network via CCIS link. The network offices then use the call control message to complete the particular call.
The typical AIN architecture allows the switched transport network to interact with database systems and other so-called intelligent peripherals for obtaining information, data and support operations. This occurs when the switching network is triggered to access the database or peripheral by some condition that arises when a telephone call is being processed. An AIN trigger will typically arise in an AIN-equipped switch, and that will cause the switch to refer to a database for information or service to support processing of the call.
An AIN type network for providing an Area Wide Centrex service was disclosed and described in detail in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,247,571 to Kay et al., the disclosure of which is entirely incorporated herein by reference. AIN type processing in such a system is controlled by the ISCP, which typically is operated by the local exchange carrier. The ISCP disclosed in Kay et al. includes a terminal subsystem referred to as a Service Creation Environment or SCE for programming the database in a services control point (SCP) for the services subscribed to by each individual business customer. Each business customer will have a single terminal for establishing a data link to the ISCP via modems. Typically, the terminal would be assigned to a corporate communications officer, and only that officer would have access to the customer's call processing records resident in the data base through the terminal. The corporate communications officer may obtain direct access through the terminal to all of the programming in the database associated with that business customer.
Concomitant with the advances in AIN technology, significant advances have also been made in the customer premise equipment (CPE)--that apparatus which makes up the terminus equipment between which telecommunications calls are extended through the carrier networks. While CPE may be no more than a simple telephone, it also may be quite complex and include such things as private branch exchanges (PBXs), computers interconnected by local area networks (LANs), and other intricate arrangements of terminal equipment and peripheral devices (e.g., facsimile machines, video terminals, databases, and so forth). The composition of CPE used in a typical residential setting, for example, is changing rapidly as computers are increasingly used in the home, and as such things as video, information, and interactive services "on demand" begin to become commercial realities. The components of residential CPE, as is perhaps more typical in a business setting, may also be interconnected in a local area network. The CPE, both residential and commercial, has lately taken on the attributes of a network unto itself.
For example, in known AIN networks, services are generally developed and added through interaction with the ISCP by telephone company personnel at the central office of the public switched telephone network. Typically, a subscriber must call a computer operator at the telephone company who has a direct link to the ISCP and who initiates or changes AIN services on behalf of the requesting subscriber. Such a system fails to take advantage of the additional capabilities provided by modern customer premises equipment.
In addition, as AIN services become more prevalent and sophisticated, it has become desirable to create individual customized services, such as announcements and call routing, for each customer. U.S. Pat. No. 5,241,588 to Babson, III et al. discloses a customized services application for creating and implementing customer service procedures for individual customers of a telephone network. The disclosed telephone network includes SS7 signaling links and a Service Control Point (SCP) database. Babson, III et al. provide for the creation and execution of customized call processing information records stored in the SCP to provide desired services. The records are created by an operator at a display terminal to provide a visual representation of the desired service in the form of a flow chart referred to as a service graph. New customized services are created or existing services are modified in a graphical environment by creating or modifying a customer's service graph on the display terminal. The displayed service is translated into a binary representation, and the data corresponding to the service graph is then stored in the SCP. During a subsequent call, either to the subscriber's number or from the subscriber's line, the SCP will receive a request from a switch of the network for information as to how to process the call. In response to the request, the SCP retrieves the customized subscriber's service procedures corresponding to the request and instructs the switch to execute the retrieved service procedures to provide the appropriate service for the customer.
Efforts have also been made to enable individual subscribers to make changes in the customer profile data stored in the ISCP database. For example, commonly-assigned allowed application Ser. No. 08/384,636, filed Feb. 6, 1995, entitled "Method and Apparatus for Selectively Blocking Incoming Calls," now U.S Pat. No. 5,467,388, issued Nov. 14, 1995, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference, discloses a method of supplying a list of numbers and authorization tiers to be stored in an ISCP database for a selective call blocking system. Specifically, the ISCP responds to a TCAP query message, generated at a central office switch in response to a subscriber call, by providing call processing data to the central office switch in order to establish an interface session with the subscriber. The interface session may be established, for example, by terminating the subscriber call to an intelligent peripheral (IP) that accepts DTMF inputs. During the interface session, the subscriber inputs the telephone numbers and authorization tiers using the DTMF keypad. After the interface session, the data input by the subscriber identifying telephone numbers authorized to bypass the subscriber's call blocking service is loaded into the ISCP database.
Despite the foregoing, the above-described systems only offer a limited number of telephone services and do not disclose interaction between the public switched network and customer premises equipment to create and modify AIN services. Rather, users must manually input information via a DTMF keypad in order to provide the necessary parameters for AIN services. Such manual entry is both time-consuming from the user standpoint and from the point of using up AIN resources for mere data entry. Moreover, manual entry will often result in erroneous inputs. As AIN services become more sophisticated, such manual entry techniques will become unacceptable to the user.
Although the above-described Kay et al. and Babson, III et al. patents disclose terminal systems that enable data entry by a key terminal, as opposed to manual DTMF input, the types of customer services terminal applications disclosed in Kay et al. and Babson, III et al. tend to be dedicated, network specific systems that must be coupled to a specific SCP. Thus, the disclosed systems lack the flexibility needed to be used by a subscriber at any desired location.